Cuba Advances with Lung Cancer Vaccine Production

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba Advances with Lung Cancer Vaccine Production


Havana, Jan 11 (AIN) Three new plants will begin producing the Cuban therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer to be used for clinical trials on the island and for similar efficiency tests in the United States.

In statements to Trabajadores weekly newspaper, Dr. Gisela Gonzalez, who heads the project at the Cuban Molecular Immunology Center, said two of the plants are being assembled at the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Center and the other one at the Immunology Center, where the final product will be made.

The plants are expected to be up and functioning during the first semester of the current year.

Gonzalez said the facilities will meet the requirements for the realization of experiments for new treatments in humans, included in the agreement signed in July 2004 by the Molecular Immunology Center and the American firm CANCERVAX, one of the most prestigious vaccine research companies in the world.
(snip/...)

http://www.periodico26.cu/english_new/health/lung120105.htm

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Carlsbad biotech in cancer deal with Cuba

CancerVax wins rare OK from U.S.

By Penni Crabtree
STAFF WRITER

July 15, 2004

CancerVax Corp. has received a rare U.S. government approval to license three experimental cancer drugs from Cuba – a deal believed to be a first for a U.S. biotech and the communist country.

The Carlsbad biotech got permission to make the deal late last week from the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces a 40-year-old trade embargo against Fidel Castro's government.

The agreement with Cuban biotechnology company CIMAB was signed this week, CancerVax chief executive David Hale said yesterday.

Since May 2001, when CancerVax officials heard a presentation by Cuban scientists at a major U.S. oncology meeting, the company has been tenaciously negotiating a way through scientific and political hurdles to forge the unusual agreement.

Along the way, CancerVax won bipartisan support in Congress and the endorsement of top oncology researchers for the Cuban deal, Hale said.
(snip/...)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040715/news_1b15cancer.html

[Mika]

1. Only commies would want a vaccine against cancer

;) :hi:


Viva Cuba!

[ret5hd]

2. you are exactly correct...

no REAL money to be made from vaccines but there is from treatment.

[Mika]

3. The impetus of the Cuban H/C system is prevention

Starting with diet (as in, organic foods), and low stress lifestyles,


Viva Cuba!

[malaise]

4. Viva Cuba

indeed - this is what happens when an entire population has access to education and health care.

[SunDrop23]

14. Exactly.

[Mika]

5. Cuba Winning Cancer Race

From the year 2000,

Cuba Winning Cancer Race
Economic isolation and a passion for healthcare yield a world lead
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/072700-02.htm

Despite a stark lack of resources, laboratories in the impoverished suburbs of the capital Havana have made startling strides in developing revolutionary vaccines and antibodies against meningitis, hepatitis, and lung, breast, head and neck cancers.

But their use in other parts of the world has been hindered up to now by the Helms-Burton Act, the US measure which penalising foreign companies for dealing with Cuba.

That hitherto impenetrable wall is now beginning to crumble in the more general thaw in US-Cuban relations, and western investors have found that Cuban scientists, subsisting on scarcely £10 a month, are ahead in some fields of their colleagues in the US and western Europe in the race to produce genetically engineered medicines.

Bush put an end to the "general thaw in US-Cuban relations", and stepped up the threats and subversion.




Abajo Bush!


Viva Cuba!

[SunDrop23]

13. Yeah, but we are winning the hearts and minds of the...no that's not it.

Good job Cuba.

[tanyev]

6. I suspect

a lot of wealthy Republicans with cancer would quickly find some loophole that would let them travel to Cuba for medical treatment.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mika]

9. Castro this Castro that

Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that


Gawd, it is "funny".

[Bono71]

11. Not a very good comeback. n/t

[Mika]

18. Maybe so, but it does mean something to the regulars to Cuba threads

The obsessive demonization of one Cuban, Castro, serves only as a distraction from the great works of an entire nation of people dedicated to their continuing revolution.

ex,

Learn from Cuba
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/learn.htm

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

“What does it, is the incredible dedication,” according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.

Castro doesn't do this. The Cuban people do.



Viva Cuba!

[TahitiNut]

12. (self delete)

:shrug:

[makhno]

15. Please

Like its site says, CIMAB doesn't develop anything, it is the official commercial partner for both foreign labs and the Cuban CIM. Its business is export-import and joint ventures, not research.

I can understand your hatred for Castro, Cuba, socialism or progress, but to assert that CIMAB is somehow less or more than stated on the site you linked to is completely retarded.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Search by Author is your friend. (nt)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

16. Hey

Isn't there one "h" too many in your username?

[chenGOD]

8. Those godless Communists.....

If they find a vaccine for cancer, how are honest American pharmaceutical companies supposed to make money treating the disease?

/sarcasm...

Fantastic news, I'm willing to bet that if his proves succesful, many many people will try their damndest to get to Cuba for treatment.

It doesn't make me want to take up smoking again, but it's great news for those suffering.

[Mika]

10. Reducing the cost of cancer, their H/C system will allow for more of this

Health Care? Ask Cuba
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/opinion/12kris.html?oref=login&oref=login

Here's a wrenching fact: If the U.S. had an infant mortality rate as good as Cuba's, we would save an additional 2,212 American babies a year.

Yes, Cuba's. Babies are less likely to survive in America, with a health care system that we think is the best in the world, than in impoverished and autocratic Cuba. According to the latest C.I.A. World Factbook, Cuba is one of 41 countries that have better infant mortality rates than the U.S.

Viva Cuba!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. 41 countries????? What's your excuse? (nt)

[chenGOD]

20. What's their excuse?

Have you seen who's been in the white house for the last 20 years?

lol